Over 75 years ago, the World Fair was home to the most innovative ideas of the time. It's where inventors from around the world brought their ideas about the future to the masses.

The telephone. The electric outlet. The X-Ray machine. Ever heard of them? They all debuted at the World Fair.

These days, however, the inventors have moved elsewhere. Forget the World Fair and start heading over to the Maker Faire. It's the place to be for modern innovations.

The first Maker Faire took place in San Francisco in 2006. It was run and operated by Make Magazine, but it was the brainchild of technology writer Dale Dougherty, who believed it would become a place where the "maker" in all of us could come out and play.

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In fact, Dale believed that everyone has a maker inside of them. The first issue of Make Magazine made that clear when Dale declared his vision:

"More than mere consumers of technology, we are makers, adapting technology to our needs and integrating it into our lives. Some of us are born makers and others, like me, become makers almost without realizing it."

Unlike the World Fair, which eventually became overly commercialized, the Maker Faire was a return to the grassroots of invention -- a place where anyone at all could showcase their innovations and creativity.

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By 2014, the movement of "maker faires" had spread around the world with over one hundred faires taking place. Across San Francisco, New York, and Rome alone, the movement saw a whopping total of over 280,000 attendees. Today, it's one of the fastest-growing movements in the world.

Have you ever attended a Maker Faire? What did you think of it? Share your thoughts in the comments below!